Plastic #1 (PET)

Not Safe to Reuse

PET plastic has a porous structure that absorbs bacteria over time and becomes more porous with each use. Because germs can reside inside the plastic, you can’t always wash them away.

Avoid Heating Plastic

Keep plastics containing food or drink out of the dishwasher or other hot places, like your car. The warmer plastic gets, the more it tends to break down, melt, and release chemicals.

Ways to Reduce

Opt For Reusable Containers

Most plastic is made directly from oil and natural gas, not recycled plastic. When plastic does get recycled, it is often into products that are no longer recyclable. Metal or glass is always a better choice.

Drink Filtered Tap Water

Disposable water bottles are made of plastic #1, and can be avoided by drinking filtered tap water instead. Most bottled water comes from the tap in the first place, and taste tests in cities such as New York have favored tap over bottled water.

Did You Know?

Bottled Water: Is It the Same as Tap?

Most bottled water is simply filtered tap water, and it can cost more than twice as much as what’s available from the tap.

Largest Plastic Bottle Recycling Plant

The Atlantic wrote an article detailing the violent afterlife of plastic bottles. Plastic from these bottles lives as long as 500 years after you toss them. This story explains what happens to them in that time, and why not enough plastic bottles are making it into the recycling system at all.

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